Ordination stats show need for greater Latino representation

Washington D.C., May 20, 2014 / 01:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A survey of men to be ordained in the U.S. in 2014 shows a slightly younger ordination class, though the U.S. bishops still hope to increase the number of priests and specifically Hispanic priests.

“The number of new priests remains steady and the quality of the new priests is stellar. They have a solid educational background to minister in the contemporary U.S. Church,” Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, said May 15.

“However, we need more priests and we need them especially from the Hispanic community,” the Raleigh, N.C., bishop said, according to the U.S. bishops’ conference reports.

Bishop Burbidge remarked upon a new survey from the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The center surveyed men set to be ordained, known as “ordinands,” in 2014. About 77 percent of the estimated 477 ordinands responded to the survey, representing 114 dioceses and archdioceses and 31 religious orders.

About 67 percent of the respondents said their primary race or ethnicity is “Caucasian / European American / White,” 15 percent said they are Hispanic or Latino, while 11 percent said they are Asian or Pacific Islander.

The U.S. bishops’ conference said that the percentage of Hispanic new priests represents about half of the Catholic Hispanic population, about 30 percent. However, a report on Hispanic ministry in Catholic parishes released earlier this month by Boston College and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate suggests that Hispanics make up 40 percent of Catholics in the U.S.

Bishop Burbidge said the U.S. bishops have made fostering more vocations to the priesthood, especially among Hispanic Catholics, their “top priorities.”

“We encourage all the faithful to pray for these special intentions,” he said.

The survey of 2014 ordinands found they have a median age of 32, a slight decrease from 2013. About 30 percent of the new priests were born outside of the U.S., with Mexico and Vietnam being most represented.

About 10 percent were converts to Catholicism, mainly from a Protestant tradition.

About half attended a Catholic elementary school, 41 percent attended a Catholic high school and 45 percent attended a Catholic college. Eighty percent served as an altar server and about half served as a lector. About 68 percent regularly prayed the rosary while 70 percent participated in Eucharistic adoration regularly before entering the seminary.

Ordinands said they first considered a vocation to the priesthood at the average age of 17. Seventy-one percent were encouraged in their vocations by a priest, and some were also encouraged by friends, parishioners and family.

Sixty percent said they had some type of full-time work experience before entering seminary, and about 54 percent finished college before entering.

Some 26 percent of ordinands had education debt when they entered seminary, with an average school debt of around $21,000.